Starbase 142
Starbase 142 is a Presidium-class Federation starbase currently assigned to the Fourth Fleet's Task Force 93. A major Starfleet Medical facility, this station serves Task Force 93's humanitarian mission by providing a safe refuge for patients evacuated from hotspots around the galaxy. The station orbits a Class-D planetoid that contains multiple secure storage facilities for medical and relief supplies, ranging from vaccines and drugs to field hospitals and starship mission modules, allowing it to serve as a major depot for medical missions.
Mission Parameters
Like all starbases, Starbase 142 is capable of general starship logistics and command support, but the station's primary mission is to serve as a hospital and a logistics depot for medical and humanitarian relief missions. The starbase supports only a minimal civilian population, which is limited to the immediate family members of the crew and certain civilian specialists. The station's operational crew is 500, with a further 1,000 medical staff supporting up to 1,500 patients, 400 in the ICU and 1,100 in acute care. 100 doctors, 800 nurses, and 100 medical technicians are supported by an advanced holographic nursing system that ensures round-the-clock one-on-one nursing care in the ICU, and one-to-six nursing care on acute floors.
Starfleet Medical has designated Starbase 142 as a level-1 trauma center (the highest level), which means that it can provide medical interventions to patients in the most dire of circumstances resulting from injury. When a starship is unable to stabilize patients with its own medical equipment, it will put them into stasis (if available) for transport to this facility. Starbase 142 is also a level-1 pathogen center, with the capability to fully isolate each floor, ward, and patient room to handle the treatment of contagious diseases. Patients with urgent but not emergency-level conditions can also be brought here, while patients without immediate, life-threatening conditions are routed to hospitals further within the Federation. The primary goal of care at Starbase 142 is to stabilize patients for transfer to rehabilitative facilities, and patients rarely spend more than a few months here.
In addition to the hospital, Starbase 142 is a logistics depot for medical supplies and other humanitarian equipment. The majority of this materiel is stored in deep bunkers within the Type-D planetoid the station orbits. Some of these supplies are highly controlled, because of their rarity or their risk for misuse, so the starbase itself and the planetoid are protected by transport inhibitor fields. Several dozen prefabricated field hospitals are stored directly on the surface. Hospital and ambulance mission modules for Nebula, Sutherland, and New Orleans-class starships are also kept in orbit of this planetoid. In a pinch, the crew at Starbase 142 can attach one of these pods to a starship, but they are generally towed first to a facility with a drydock, such as Starbase 93.
Operational History
Starbase 142 was built in the Gamma Zibal system in 2359, one of the first Presidium-class stations deployed by Starfleet. Gamma Zibal was considered a somewhat unusual place for a hospital, but its proximity to Catulla and to several prospective member worlds, such as Theta Zibal III led the Federation Diplomatic Corps to lobby for a station here as a demonstration of the Federation's good will and benevolence in the region.
Throughout the first decade of its existence, Starbase 142 was a sleepy assignment, occasionally seeing influxes of patients from vessels attacked by Orion pirates, but otherwise being far from the Cardassian front. Its location far from the Dominion lines later led it to be used extensively as a safe haven during the Dominion War, but it wasn't until the Romulan evacuation that Starbase 142 saw real action--receiving patients injured during the evacuation and preparing humanitarian relief convoys.
During the 2390s, the station received an update to its medical systems, but it largely retains its mid-24th century technology in operational aspects. In 2401, this station was transferred to the auspices of Task Force 93, the Fourth Fleet's humanitarian operations unit.